A comfort station was the topic of discussion Tuesday night by Cheboygan City Council, and at the present time, there will not be one at Festival Square.

During a public hearing, City Manager Dale Stuart reported to council there was an available grant for funds to help construct a station at Festival Square, but the deadline is April 1.

One of the reasons why council turned down the idea of applying for a grant was because there is a question of where to construct such a facility.

“I am getting used to the openness,” said Mayor Richard Sangster. Stuart said the idea was to construct the station along Main Street which would take the open area away.

The city manager said a station of adequate size could not be constructed at the pavilion. It would cost about $200,000 and would be relatively small.

“We would need to have a 25 percent match for the grant,” he said. “We have $39,000 left over from the construction of Festival Square, but we would have to add to that.”

Council member Winifred Riddle said the idea was for the comfort station to go hand-in-hand with ice skating at the square, but added “if we are not moving forward with that then ...”

Stuart said he has been keeping a log and this is the first year it even has been cold enough for ice and there would be an expense for the city to put ice down.

“If we don’t have this grant, it will be a long time before we have bathrooms there,” he said. “No decisions would be made on the grant until late this year and funding would not occur until 2014.”

The city manager said Porta-Potties are working for the time being and a comfort station may serve no other use than being a bathroom for the downtown.

Council member Michael VanFleet said the downtown already has a good restroom with a little fixing up.

“The restroom on Water Street now is dysfunctional,” he said. “I am more inclined to fix that one up than build one.”

Council member Nick Couture said that would be a good place, but right now, it is not very boater friendly. Council member Vaughn Temple added that if Festival Square did not need the facilities, then the Water Street facilities should be repaired.

Council approved the expenditure of $7,000 for fireworks for Fourth of July at the Cheboygan County Fairgrounds. The agreement was made with Wolverine Fireworks Display Inc.

Page 2 of 2 - Council also agreed to pay $4,205.93 to Wade Trim for the 2011 Water Main Capital Project. Also adopted was to request the remaining funds of $335,794.07 due from Rural Development from the project. These funds will be used for principal reduction of the bond leaving a total of $2.723 million in debt payments.